In my opinion, Iron Condors are to much risk and not enough reward. I may be wrong but wouldn't trading a breakout on a daily experation yield better results by lowering risk and increasing reward? On top of freeing up your day.
I trade intraday contracts mainly but my strategy holds a very similar success rate on the M5, M15, 60M and the daily experation. I have time to trade on week days so I gravitate toward shorter time frames. 60M is more stable for people with little free time or a day job.
Most Iron Condors are set and forget strategies so I am not sure why it would tie up your whole day doing them... In fact monthly condors are sold by services to newbies as a means for passive income with little to no work haha.
thats exactly right. And I noticed today that most of the high iv trades I was looking at are near earnings, which is quite scary if you ask me.
So if I want to buy a straddle or slightly strangle I should focus on near expiration rather then 30 days? Thanks
I only rarely ever buy, and usually on the trending side. I have done a strangle maybe once a quarter, and only on a lark, and with money I planned on losing. I can't even tell you what my net over time is. I'm either selling time, or (very little in the past few years) scalping ticks.
forget that this is an options strategy -do the simple maths. Your reward is say 15,your risk 35( a 50 point wide spread). You win the first 4 trades but lose the next 2. Got it? R/R does not often work for ICs these days,and desperation will make you chase rubbish premiums
ICs are maligned as a lazy strategy. Yes, a fly will make more on vega, no surprise. ICs are useful traded against long combos (straddles) and in isolation as a path-ind alternative to a DNT. I could name specific examples, but it's self-evident.